Biological fluids such as whole blood must be collected from a donor in a collection bag. To accomplish this, one normally uses a the bag system including in closed circuit, a device for collecting the blood which is in fluid communication with at least one blood collection bag. In addition, the system includes a device for sampling the blood which is intended to receive some of the blood taken. The device normally includes at least one sampling receptacle.
The use of such a sampling device makes it possible to obtain, in each receptacle, a sample of blood intended to be analysed, in particular for carrying out serology, virology and a blood count.
In particular, the bag system may be used by collecting the first millilitres of blood in the sampling device, which has a certain number of advantages. Firstly, this reduces the risk of contamination resulting from the presence of bacteria or other foreign substances on the skin of the donor because the first millilitres of blood collected, which are more likely to be affected by this contamination, are sent into the sampling device rather than into the collection bag. Secondly, this makes it possible to take samples before the collection bag is completely filled and consequently does not waste time. Finally, during the collection, the loss of blood volume for the donor may be compensated for the addition of plasma, resulting in a lower haematocrit reading than if the sampling device were filled after the collection bag, and consequently the count would be incorrect.
One problem which is posed is that of the difficulty in handling known bag systems. This is because the user must position several receptacles in order to obtain the samples, which gives rise to a loss of time.
One aim of the invention is in particular to resolve this problem by proposing a bag system in which each sampling receptacle is stored at the device for transferring fluid from the bag system into it, the receptacle then being able to be guided by the operator into the transfer device for collecting a sample.